Bottom Line:
Thorough understanding of the enzymology of oil accumulation is critical to the goal of modifying oilseeds for improved vegetable oil production.This strong sensitivity of the BnDGAT1 isozymes to the relative concentrations of acyl-CoA substrates substantially explains the observed fatty acid composition of B. napus seed oil.Understanding these enzymes that are critical for triacylglycerol synthesis will facilitate genetic and biotechnological manipulations to improve this oilseed crop.

Mentions:
Protein sequences predicted from transcriptome analysis of B. napus developing seed were analysed for similarity with known plant DGAT1 proteins, using the BLASTP algorithm (Altschul et al., 1990). Four candidate DGAT sequences were identified for further analysis. The evolutionary relationships within this candidate B. napus DGAT family were analysed by performing a phylogenetic analysis with a set of protein sequences from diverse organisms (Fig. 1). The four DGAT1-like sequences clustered within the DGAT1 family and are strongly related to the well-characterized Arabidopsis DGAT1, with ∼85% amino acid sequence identity. The four predicted enzymes were designated as BnDGAT1-1 through BnDGAT1-4; the same four have recently been named by others (Fig. 1; Greer et al., 2014).

Mentions:
Protein sequences predicted from transcriptome analysis of B. napus developing seed were analysed for similarity with known plant DGAT1 proteins, using the BLASTP algorithm (Altschul et al., 1990). Four candidate DGAT sequences were identified for further analysis. The evolutionary relationships within this candidate B. napus DGAT family were analysed by performing a phylogenetic analysis with a set of protein sequences from diverse organisms (Fig. 1). The four DGAT1-like sequences clustered within the DGAT1 family and are strongly related to the well-characterized Arabidopsis DGAT1, with ∼85% amino acid sequence identity. The four predicted enzymes were designated as BnDGAT1-1 through BnDGAT1-4; the same four have recently been named by others (Fig. 1; Greer et al., 2014).

Bottom Line:
Thorough understanding of the enzymology of oil accumulation is critical to the goal of modifying oilseeds for improved vegetable oil production.This strong sensitivity of the BnDGAT1 isozymes to the relative concentrations of acyl-CoA substrates substantially explains the observed fatty acid composition of B. napus seed oil.Understanding these enzymes that are critical for triacylglycerol synthesis will facilitate genetic and biotechnological manipulations to improve this oilseed crop.